The Genocide Day observed across Bangladesh has international significance, “particularly in ensuring the end of genocide from the world,” Bangladesh High Commissioner to India Md Mustafizur Rahman said yesterday.

Speaking at a function on the Genocide Day at the high commission premises, he said although the day is observed nationally, “it has international significance and relevance,” reports our New Delhi correspondent.

“In addition to remembering the victims of genocide in various countries of the world, including Bangladesh, the scope and significance of this day is far-reaching, particularly in ensuring the end of genocide from the world and bringing the perpetrators to justice,” Rahman was quoted as saying in a press release issued by the Bangladesh mission.

The Genocide Day commemorates one of the most brutal, barbaric and heinous massacres of human history carried out by the then Pakistani occupation forces on the unarmed and innocent Bangalees on the dark night of 25 March 1971 under the so-called “Operation Searchlight”.

On the occasion of the day, a minute’s silence was observed to pay tribute to the memory of the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and the martyrs who made supreme sacrifice during the great Liberation War, including those who were mercilessly killed on the night of 25 March 1971.